The Moncton Wildcats, riding a four-goal night from Vincent Collard and a 43-save performance from Mathis Rousseau, pulled to within one win of their first league title in 15 years thanks to a 6-4 victory over the Rimouski Oceanic in game three of the 2025 Gilles-Courteau Trophy Final tonight in Rimouski.
The Cats, who see their postseason record improve to 15-1, also received a goal and an assist each from Juraj Pekarcik and Etienne Morin, while Caleb Desnoyers chipped in a pair of helpers. Rimouski’s goals came off the sticks of Mathieu Cataford, Maël Lavigne, Jonathan Fauchon and Jacob Mathieu. Cataford also registered a pair of assists, as did Pier-Olivier Roy. William Lacelle made 11 saves on 16 shots before giving way to Mathis Langevin, who stopped eight of the nine shots he faced in relief.
Rimouski came out of the gate with full force, but it was the Wildcats who held a 2-0 advantage through 20 minutes. The shots were 12-2 Oceanic when Moncton broke the ice at the 7:07 mark as Collard, the overtime hero in game two, carried the puck into the Rimouski zone, went to the net and tipped a Dylan MacKinnon point shot past Lacelle.
The Cats doubled their lead just 1:36 later when Pekarcik, who initiated the scoring play with a turnover in the neutral zone, cashed in on a rebound from close range for his ninth of the postseason off an initial shot by Julius Sumpf.
The story of the period was Rousseau, however, as the Moncton netminder came out with a clean slate despite being under siege, particularly during the first ten minutes of play. Rimouski held a 16-9 advantage in shots entering the intermission.
Again, it was all Rimouski for long stretches of the second. Again, the Cats held a two-goal lead – this time 5-3 – at the intermission. The Oceanic cut their deficit to 2-1 at the 2:52 mark when Cataford reeled in Dominic Pilote’s centering feed, spun, and fired the puck past his former Mooseheads teammate Rousseau with a low wrister for his seventh of the postseason. Lavigne knotted the score up at 4:40 when he was given room to cut off the wall and into the blue paint, where he tucked a backhander home for his seventh of the postseason.
The Wildcats would retake the lead on an unassisted shorthanded goal at 6:55. Collard, with plenty of room to motor out of his own zone, used wingman Maxime Côté as a decoy before putting a high wrist shot in full stride past Lacelle.
Rimouski would tie things up at 3-3 with its first power play goal of the series at 13:17. Cataford would spot Fauchon at the side of the net with a pass that the league’s top regular season scorer would shovel past Rousseau for his fifth of the playoffs. Just 1:31 later, Moncton would pull ahead again on a power play of its own. Morin’s second postseason tally came on a wrister from the line that snuck through a screen and past Lacelle. Collard would complete his hat trick at 16:22 on a centering feed from Desnoyers which would spell the end of Lacelle’s evening. The Oceanic outshot the Cats 16-10 in the middle period.
Collard would continue his tear at the 4:55 mark of the third, picking up a short pass from Gabe Smith in the slot area and ripping a wrister by Langevin to become the first player to record four goals in a QMJHL Final game since Paul Byron performed the feat for the Gatineau Olympiques back on May 6, 2008 versus Rouyn-Noranda. The Oceanic would cap off the scoring to make it a 6-4 game at 12:52, when Rousseau kicked Cataford’s initial shot into the slot to Mathieu, who made no mistake with a wrister for his league-leading 14th postseason snipe. Rimouski outshot Moncton 15-6 in the final frame, good for a 47-25 advantage over 60 minutes.
The Wildcats will go looking for their third sweep of the postseason during tomorrow’s game four in Rimouski. It all starts at 7pm ET/8pm AT and is once again available on TSN, RDS and CHL TV.
